Yves Saint Laurent Le Teint Touche Eclat Foundation Review

A little while ago I was stopped by a lovely lady at the YSL counter in House of Fraser and was asked if I'd like to be matched up for a free foundation sample. Of course I couldn't say no and came away with my little bottle of Le Teint Touche Eclat foundation. I was given shade B50 which looks a little yellow on my hands but blends out nicely on my face.

I have to admit I don't follow YSL as closely as other brands, but I believe this is their new foundation. This is what I found about it on the Debenhams website: "Twenty years after the launch of the iconic Touche clat, Yves Saint Laurent adopts a leading edge technology that transposes the magic of this legendary highlighter into a foundation to achieve the same illuminating result for the entire face. Yves Saint Laurent introduces LE TEINT TOUCHE CLAT. A bold, unique formula to target shadowy areas and define contours. Infused within a weightless fluid, the light of Touche clat foundation targets shadowy areas and highlights the contours of the face. Free of opaque powders, its perfecting texture evens the complexion and helps conceal imperfections, while enhancing your skin's natural beauty."

I think the key word is illuminating. While not greasy by any means, this foundation does look more "dewy" on me than some others, so I think it would suit drier skins better than oily ones. I have normal skin during the winter months, but my T-zone can get rather oily in hot weather, so I would definitely not wear this in the summer, but right now it works well for me. I don't love it as much as I do the Lancome Teint Visionnaire foundation, it is definitely more dewy on my face and tends to need a bit of blotting halfway through the day, but it does have a nice medium coverageand it feels very light on the skin. It comes in 22 shades which is great and the full size product comes in a pump bottle which is also a big plus.


I like this foundation, but won't be buying the full size version. I know it's just going to be too dewy on me in the warmer months plus it doesn't come with SPF which I think is really necessary in the summer. It's nice in the winter, but I have nicer foundations. However, if you have dry skin and you're near a YSL counter, it's well worth a look. £29 for 30 ml.

See more pictures after the jump! If you want to see me wear this foundation on my face, check out this post for full face pictures!

Barry M Bold Gun Metal and Bold Blue Waterproof Eyeliner Review and Swatches

I bought these Barry M eye pencils a little while ago when they had a 3 for 2 offer in Boots and there was a very pretty nail polish I wanted to get. So you know, started looking at other things to make use of the promotion (as you might have noticed, I do that very often!) and came across these eyeliners. I thought for £3.99 each (well, one was actually free) they were worth a try. Luckily I was right.

They are very similar to Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencils, soft and smooth, very easy to apply, but dry down quickly and don't budge for hours. The shades I got are Bold Gun Metal which is a shimmery silver/grey colour and Bold Blue which is a shimmery medium blue colour. Bold Blue has slightly more micro glitter to it, but it's by no means glittery. I also bought Bold Purple subsequently which I'll be reviewing separately.

Both eyeliners stayed on my waterline fairly well, probably for about 4 hours, and on my lower lashline all day. These are supposed to be waterproof and I have tested Bold Gun Metal in the swimming pool and it did smudge, not terribly badly, but it did. I'm not that fussed, but if you are looking for a truly waterproof eyeliner, these might not be the ones for you.

Bold Gun Metal isn't too similar in colour to any of the Urban Decay 24/7 eye pencils I own (it's quite a bit darker than Gunmetal and less shimmery), but Bold Blue is a dupe for Deviant, I swatched them side by side and you can't tell the difference. If you like blue eyeliners, this may be good news for you, as these are similar size to the Urban Decay ones (doesn't actually say anywhere, but I estimate between 1 and 1.2 g) and only cost £3.99 each, plus there's bound to be an offer on them at some point.

All in all these are nice, creamy, long lasting eyeliners, but not as waterproof as they claim to be.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Do You Want A Dupe (Or Two) For OPI Polka.com Nail Polish?

With my China Glaze Hologlam order I also got OPI Polka.com, the only polish I was interested in from the Euro Centrale collection (which is quite unexpected since I'm from Hungary and there are a few references to Hungary/Budapest, but none of the colours called out to me). Of course me being me, I managed to accidentally pick up a couple of dupes before I even received Polka.com. I thought I'd show you what they are, so if you'd like the OPI polish but it's a bit too pricey for you at £12.

The polishes you see in the picture are (left to right) Beauty UK Posh Polish in Pinkabloo, OPI Polka.com and Topshop Hope Floats. There are very slight differences, but the over all look is pretty much the same. While OPI has blue and pink micro glitter (as well as the larger blue, turquoise and bright pink hex glitter they all have), the Beauty UK polish only has blue micro glitter and the Topshop polish has turquoise micro glitter. However, as you can see in the swatch pictures, the difference is very hard to see. The hex glitter is pretty much the same in all 3. Consistency wise they seemed pretty similar, while OPI had the best brush, it's nice and wide, and Beauty UK had the worst, thin little brush.

Pricewise the Beauty UK one is the cheapest at £3.49 for 9 ml, then it's the Topshop one at £6 for 8 ml and then the OPI one at £12 for 15 ml (I bought mine for £7.15 from Nail Polish Direct by the way). Technically the OPI is cheaper than the Topshop one gram per gram, but question is, do you actually NEED 15 ml of glitter polish?

See swatch pictures after the jump!

China Glaze Hologlam Collection Haul and Swatches

My China Glaze Hologlam collection holographic nail polishes arrived today! I was so excited, I had to take pictures and swatch them all. Unfortunately one of them (Strap On Your Moonboots) broke in transit, so there is quite a bit of polish on some of the other bottles, but I just quickly wanted to take some pictures while it was sunny. Luckily the bottle didn't smash completely, only the top broke off, so I could still swatch the polish (there's about 2/3 left in the bottle as it remained standing).

I haven't worn any of them yet, so can't comment on wear time. The swatches show just one coat, I'd probably do two for a better coverage, but they are nicely pigmented. The holo effect isn't as strong as some other (namely Color Club and Glitter Gal), but it's not too bad, it's still linear and perfectly visible. The pictures were taken in strong sunlight, so they are as good as they get. All the pictures were taken without flash.

The colours are nice, not massively unique, but pretty anyway. OMG A UFO looks rather yellow/gold in the pictures, it's actually more khaki than yellow in real life. Don't Be A Lunatic and Sci-Fly By are very close, Sci-Fly By is a little bit darker, but hardly noticable. Get Out Of My Space and Astro Hot look quite similar in the pictures, but Get Out Of My Space is definitely more purple in real life.

While the holo effect isn't as strong as I hoped, these polishes are really nice and I'm glad I got them all. I ordered mine from Nail Polish Direct and they cost £8.95 for 14 ml each.

See lots more pictures after the jump!

Maybelline Superstay 14 Hour Lipstick Review and Swatches

So I was in Boots the other day looking at make up and found a new shade of Maybelline Color Tattoo eyeshadows (review coming soon) that I really liked the look of. But since there was a 3 for 2 offer on Maybelline make up, I thought I might as well take advantage of it and ended up buying two of the new Superstay 14 Hours lipsticks. I got 430 Stay With Me Coral and 160 Infinitely Fuchsia, the two brightest shades.

First of all I'd like to point out, that I'm not a muppet and wasn't expecting these lipsticks to last for 14 hours. The blogger in me was very curious and of course had to get them. So, do they last for 14 hours? Of course not. Now that's out the way, let's see what the lipsticks are actually like.

I'm pleased to say that they are actually pretty nice. They are creamy, vibrant, they smell gorgeous (this I was worried about as most drugstore/cheap lipsticks smell hideous with a few exceptions) and feel lovely on. Infinitely Fuchsia feels smoother on, Stay With Me Coral seems heavier and doesn't look as smooth either. They both apply very opaque in just a couple of swipes and last for about 4-5 hours depending on whether I eat or not. I tested them both for wear, they were both okay for 3-4 hours with little eating/drinking, and then practically disappeared when I had a proper meal. The sheen starts to disappear after about 3 hours and I've found that the lipstick starts fading from the inner part of my lips first. They last well for a regular lipstick, butu definitely nowhere near the advertised 14 hours!

On the plus side they feel really nice on, they're not at all sticky and don't feel drying at all unlike a lot of long lasting lip products. I didn't need to apply any gloss or balml on top, or even afterwards, my lips were fine. Won't say they're actively moisturising, but definitely not drying.

According to Boots they come in 20 shades, but I can only see 11 on their website and my local store only had about 8 shades on the display. There are lighter, more muted shades as well, but I like mine bright.

These lipsticks cost £6.99 each (I don't know what size they are as it doesn't say anywhere) and there's a 3 for 2 offer on all Maybelline make up at Boots at the moment.

See lots more pictures including arm and lip swatches after the jump!

NOTD: Team GB / Jubilee Nails

Yes, I know, I'm a few months behind, but this mani reminded me of last summer with the Queen's Golden Jubilee and the London Olympics. I used Barry M Jewel Britannia glitter nail polish on top of Max Factor Odyssey Blue nail polish.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I used 3 coats of Odyssey Blue and then topped it with one coat of Jewel Britannia. Both polishes for great, Odyssey Blue was smooth and quick drying and Jewel Britannia had a very good glitter coverage in just one coat. It has small holo glitter as well as medium size red, blue and silver round glitter. Very British looking indeed. The mani lasted for 3 days with very minimal chipping and it was so pretty, very sparkly and unique.

Max Factor Odyssey Blue is a mini size and costs £3.99, Barry M Jewel Britannia was a limited edition shade and I can't find it on any website anymore. For reference though, Barry M glitter polishes cost £2.99.

See another picture after the jump!

My Recent Kiko Haul, Review and Swatches

I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this post due to my bad experience when ordering from Kiko a while ago (if you don't know what I'm talking about, read this post, but basically their customer services based in Italy were a pile of cr@p), however, to be fair to Kiko, despite their non-existing customer service their products are actually very good and the staff in their Westfield store have only ever been helpful and nice. I still won't be ordering from their website, but it's worth checking out their store if you're near one.

On a recent trip to Westfield London I picked up four of their water eyeshadows, one long lasting stick eyeshadow and two nail polishes. The nail polishes were in the sale, I believe they are from the holiday collection which I never saw because I stupidly forgot to pop into the Kiko store when I was in London in December, and one of them is even holographic (I believe there were four of them in the collection)! The water eyeshadows are permanent and the long lasting stick eyeshadow is limited edition (although there are also some permanent shades in different packaging).

I haven't tried the nail polishes yet, so I won't be reviewing them in this post. I have tried other Kiko nail polishes and they were fine, but they come in lots of different finishes and colours. I got shades 402 and 404. Kiko nail polishes cost £4.90 for 11 ml, but I think I paid £2 each for the ones I got in the sale.

I have reviewed the long lasting stick eyeshadows (permanent line) before, if you want to read my review, it's here. The new limited edition shade I bought is 31 Hypnotic Iris Blue which is a bright blue with purple duochrome. It gave me a very hard time as my camera just couldn't pick up the beautiful duochrome, so I had to use my phone to capture the true colour (as a result I have to I apologise for the bad picture quality). It's such a beautiful, vibrant colour though, I had many compliments while wearing it. I used it over Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer and it lasted very well without fading or creasing. It was easy to blend out and stayed put without smudging. The product come in a twist up pen like many other cream eyeshadows. Long lasting stick eyeshadows cost £6.90 and you get 1.64 g product.

The water eyeshadows are basically wet and dry eyeshadows with an excellent texture and colour payoff. They come in 32 shades and I chose 4 of them: 212 Emerald Green, 221 Cyclamen, 225 Indigo Blue and 224 Lavender. The latter was also a troublesome shade, it has a gorgeous purple duochrome to it and of course that didn't show up properly either (cue bad quality phone camera photos). The eyeshadows are a little bit like the gelee powder shadows Estee Lauder and Mac have come out with, very smooth, easy to blend, almost creamy, but with the non-creasing advantage of powder shadows. They are quite shimmery and a bit metallic, but not glittery at all. I wore them on top of Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer and they lasted all day without creasing or fading and with no fallout. I seriously love them, they are gorgeous. They come in mirrored black compacts and have a design that resembles ripples on water. The water eyeshadows cost £8.90 each and you get 3 g for your money.

See more pictures including swatches and looks I did with these products after the jump!